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CENTENNIAL

lISfQEIOAIi ADDllSS

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DELIVERED AT

JULY 4, 1S7G,

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By JUDGE WILLIAM MILLS.

XEN'IA, OHIO.

GAZETTE STEA3I PEIXT.
Ifc76.

Entered according to Act of Congress in the
tear 1876, in the office of the librarian of con-
GRESS, AT WASHINGTON, B. C, BY WiLLIASI MILLS.

^

THE ADDRESS.

I My Fellow Citizens :— One huiidred
A^years ago, our noble ancestors severed the
bonds of their political servitude with Eng-
land, and declared themselves and their pos-
terity forever free, and independent. From
that day, a new era in the history of civiliza-
i^ lion, a fresh impetus in the growth and build-
** ing up of the whole country, its towns, cities,
counties and states is every where witnessed.
^ 'Tis a fitting occasion then, and while the
.livery atmosphere is redolent of patriotic fer-
\ vor — to recall scenes and events which have
"■' become familiar and dear to every American
heart. Let the welkin ring with the clarion
'y shout, all hail the glorious 4th of July, 187G,
^ the anniversary of our Nation's Birthday.
^ To commemorate the event by demonstra-
tions of joy, enlivened by the sweet strains
^. of music, and by various intellectual enter -
' tainments and innocent amusements, as well
C .as to rehearse and indelibly impress ihe facts
^ and incidents of the fast receding past npon

the historic page; we are to-day assembled
under auspices, well calculated to inspire our
hearts with giatitude aud our souls with rev-
erential awe. The quiet repose and beauty
of the smiling heavens above us, the rich and
fertile landscape around us, the thousands of
happy faces before us,beaming with love and
intelligence, all commingle in this glorious
festival, simultaneously with the forty mil-
lions of our fellow citizens, who in like man-
ner are convened to revive a lively remem*
brance, as they recall the stirring and life-
consuming trials and vicissitudes of the
seven years of constant warfare and suf-
fering of our revolutionary fathers. But the
special duty assigned to me on this Centen-
nial Anniversary of our American Indepen-
dence, will confine my thoughts to a narrow-
er range, the subject having already been se-
lected for my reflections, and embracing top-
ics and events connected with our own be-
loved county of Greene, illustrating the so-
cial, moral and mental characteristics of its
early inhabitants, and showing the natural
results fiowiug from sources so pure and
elevating, as the sequel will prove in the
rapid, great aud grand developments, both
material and educational. In accordance
then, with not only the request of my fellow

citizens, but the expressed will of the na-
tional councils at Washington, that an his-
torical sketch of each county be prepared by-
some designated party, for permanent use,
as well as for the present gratification of our
patriotic fervor, I proceed with the theme
already announced, to wit : A historical
sketch of Greene County, daring the last
century.

A more pleasing and intereeh'ng task
could not have fallen to my lot, though one
better adapted for the display of hope's
bright fancy and indulgence in glowing
prophecies of the greatness and grandeur of
the unfolding destinies of our yet young,
but marvelously promising republic might
have been chosen. As we unroll the scroll
of the past, we find that less than 100 years
ago in all this region, the sunny valleys and
pleasant hills, the fertile plains and luxuri-
ant forests, all vocal with the music of their
native songsters, were then one vast solitude
unenlivened by the cheering rays of civiliza-
tion, but still beautiful and lorely in the
variegated garb and display of nature's own
handiwork. Amid these secluded vales and
rolling hill-sides sported the timid deer and
roving wild turkey, while the stealthy tread
of the cunning fox, knew no alarm., nor tbe

coy doves any fear for their lonely nests.
The gurgling fountains bubbled up their
crystal-like beverage and rolled their limpid
waters away and onward to swell the mighty
rivers ot the great west. Then those gently
flowing and perennial streams, Silver and
Sugar, Ctesar and Beaver creeks, rippled on
and ever, as from the morn of creation, bnt
as yet there was not an inhabitant to give
them a name. The falls of the Little Miami
and Massies Creek, gems of romantic beauty
for the artist's pencil and abounding in scenic
delight to all beholders, had been wearing
away from age to age, deep down in the un-
derlying limestone, and dashing their waters
fioin cliff to cliff, as if summoning by their
murmuring roar, the listening ear and me-
chanic's hand,to utilize the wasting spray on
the revolving wheels and machinery of a
future industry. Another feature of rare at-
traction and unsurpassed loveliness alone
peculiar to this section, was the far-famed
Yellow Spring, a copious fount of limpid
water and of medicinal virtues, gushing
forth amid its grand old park of lofty forest
trees, siandiug like sentinels in God's own
temple, embowering in their tender care a
mound of the aborigines, while bordering
this panorama and masterpiece of nature's

own planuiug, an echoing cascade could
1)6 heard plaintively singing their requiem —
as the sound died away in the silent retreats
of a charming glen of isolated rocks and
overhanging evergreens as beautiful as ever
a painter sketched or poet sang. It was just
the spot, in subsequent time, for the hopeful
imaginative and credulous to found a colony
of "communists," styling themselves "Owen-
ites," where in 1825, some two hundred per-
sons, of all ages and both sexes, congregated
under one roof, dwelling together however
for scarcely a twelve month, in more or less
of promiscuity and great inharmony, and
failing to realize their Utopian schemes of
sublunary bliss, they wisely agreed to disa-
gree and separated, again to mingle and help
swell the mighty ocean of our ever restless
and strugglmg humanity in its higher aspir-
ations for still sublimer heights. The soil,
the water courses, in fine all nature, as Bishop
Haber descibes India's Coral Strand, was
pleasing. Civilized man alone was wanting,
the noblest work of God, to give a new life
and energy to this unequalled but tenantless
Eden. From primeval ages the circling pe-
riods had been rolling their harvest and
fruit-bearing seasons of warmth, sunshine
and rain on all this region, but like the first

Paradise, there was no tiller of the soil to en-
joy and inhale the freshness and fragrance of
so delightful an arcadia. Then the untutored
red man wandered in aimless life over and
around these verdure-covered hills and dales,
and game abounding woods, only aroused to
action when pursuing the beasts of the for-
ests— himself more savage than they — aU un-
mindful of the grand and ennobling influ-
ences of the on-coming civilization — when
once the skilled hand of labor and industry,
science and religion, should extend their be-
nign and creative power over this former
dark and benightened land, literally causing
the wilderness to bud and blossom as the
rose. Such was the outward appearance and
inner-life of all this surrounding country,
when our fathers first beheld its pristine
glory and beauty. The mystery of antiquity
or tales of romance, need not be invoked to
tax our credulity, nor traditionary reports
relied upon as references, for there are
those to day in our midst whose personal
knowledge and memory will confirm the
facts and history of this early period, as step
by step our fathers made their progressive
march, while taking possession of this goodly
land. For many years prior to its first set-
tlement in 1780—1790 and 1791— both sol-

diers aud officers of Gen'l Clark's, Harmer's-
and Si. Clair's campaign, as well as scouts
and prisoners of war, from Kentucky, had
passed through this section of Ohio, always
a favorite resort and cherished home of the
aborigines, the birth place of the renowned
warrior, Tecumseh, and with the keen in-
sight of pioneer adventurers, had beheld its
beauties, richness and o:reat agricultural re-
sources. Upon their return, they reported
in the fervor of their imagination that they
had seen canaansof fertility and delight in
all our river valleys, teeraiuofwith alluvial
fatness, while the eye of taste was charmed
with ths varied and outlying scenery in all
the intervening country. The reputation of
this region (since erected into a county) for
health and desirableness was now well es-
tablished by these early observers and par-
ticipators in our frontier Indian warfare, and
it only remained for all the bold and daring
spirits, thus schooled in the midst of dangers,
and surrounded by a relentless foe, when
seeking a new home, to find their way, one
by one, or in groups to this fair and beauti-
ful land. In 1790, all north and west of the
Ohio, was one unbroken wilderness, except
along the boundaries of the river, where a
few fearless backwoodsmen had ventured to

10

rear the humble log cabin, and girdle iiere
and there a small patch of overshadowing
trees as a nucleus for cultivation. But to
work their way into the interior some 70
miles, as far north as the limits of our county
— from the Ohio — was still a work of Her-
culian labor, and attended with great per-
sonal danger, so that it required a prudence
and fortitude to be both strengthened and
encouraged by delay. But the restless and
enterprising spirits born of the revolution,
nurtured in the midst of hardships and pri-
vations, ever exposed to attacks from savage
enemies, were not of a character long to be
retarded in their resolution, to come and oc-
cupy the land. With them, to will and the
way was the same. The very year, 1795, as
soon as Gen'l Wayne, known as Mad An-
thony, had concluded a treaty with the va-
rious Indian tribes, surrendering their en-
tire jurisdiction to the soil of Ohio, the first
pioneer emigrant found his way for a per-
manent home in that portion of Grreene Co.
now known as Sugar Creek township — and
he is still remembered as Daniel Wilson,
having built the first log cabin, on the 7th of
April, 1796.

Thus only 80 years ago we may date the
first authentic settlement of the county, and

11

the opening wedge to its transformation
from the long ages of its wilderness and sol-
itude to the habitation cf civilized man. The
North Western tribe of Indians having been
forced to an unwilling peace, safety was
now measurably felt and the entire territory
having been ceded to the United States by
treaty, the hardy and hopeful pioneer pur-
sued his way north from the Ohio River,
through the tangled underbush and opposing
forest growth, with only his compass for a
guide and his trusty axe to blaze the pathway
to his new home. For it was here that the
almost fabulous tales of the captives, as they
rapidly surveyed the country, as hurried
away by their sanguinary foe — had pictured
out this region as a very Eldorado of their
hopes— where neither hill nor dale, nor large
nor sluggish streams encroached upon each
other, but a happy proportion of each was
equally distributed in this then remote and
little known retreat. Emigrant after emigrant
from both Kentucky and Virginia, followed
in quick succession. Cabins rose up as by
magic, and in less than two years after the
curling smoke of the first stick and mud
chimney proclaimed the presence and home
of the white man, many others had dotted
this hitherto wilderness with their rude tene-

12

ments. That portion now known as Beaver
Creek Township — possessing all the elements
of a wealth producing district, is conceded
the priority in her public improvements, in-
cluding court house, jail, mill, church and
school-house, all of the rudest structure of
logs, but boasting such enterprising citizens
as Gen'l Benjamin Whiteman, Owen Davis>
Grover Maxwell, Paul Puterbaugh, Mc-
Clain, Wolf, Nesbit, Fulk, Tatman,
Shoup, Robinson, Marshall, Somme and Al-
lison— the widow of the latter, still living,
who once occupied this primitive hut and
seat of justice^while almost simultaneously,
Thos. Townsley, James Galloway Mitchell*
Miller, McHatton, Hawn, Andrews, Quinn,
Hopping, McCullough, Stewarts and others
settled on Massies Creek and the Little Mi-
ami. The following year, 1799, the brothers
Isaiah and Wm. Sutton commenced a home
in Ca3sars' Creek township, and within the
next three years we find the humble dwell-
ings of logs rearing their unpretentious-
fronts all over the area now included in
Greene county. So rapidly had population
increased, and the demands of civil society
grown in magnitude, and in various relations
that the inhabitants organized themselves
into a county thelst of May, 1803, out of ter-

13

ritory previously recognized as belonging to
Hamilton and Ross counties, within six
months after Ohio had been admitted into
the Union. Here we have the most forcible
illustration of the active and intelligent
character of the first settlers of our county,
who thus established themselves in legal re-
lationship with the great state itself, only 7
years from the time the woodsman's axe had
echoed their presence, in this hitherto track-
less forest. In the selection of that revolu-
tionary name, Greene, they evinced their
high appreciation of one of the noble com-
patriots of Washington, who had the title of
Major General conferred upon him at a period
of our nation's history when meritorious ser-
vices and character alone secured that honor
as a grateful tribute for deserved merit, and
acknowledged ability. Though these noble
pioneers had now taken all the preliminary
steps for a prosperous and growing com-
munity, still the newness of the country and
the intervening wilderness between them
and the lakes — the Indians yet lingering in
close proximity, and often forming encamp-
ments in sight of their very dwellings, nec-
essarially impeded that rapidity of growth
and social development so desirable and
characteristic of that brave and patriotic

14

band, who had planted themselves on the
very verge of danger as well as tbe outskirts
of civilization. For though Mad Anthony,
as he was familiarly called, had forced an un-
willing peace upoi\ all the Indian tribes of
the northwest — yet mutterings of discontent
and secret outrages were of constant occur-
rence, even up to the war of 1812 and for
some years afterwards, so that the tide of
emigration into this section was consequent-
ly slow, during these earlier years. But
what was lacking in numbers, they made up
in moral stamina — for only men who were
self-reliant and hosts in themselves, would
dare encounter the hardships and personal
dangers of an exposed and frontier life.
Hence in the onward progress and success
of many, if not all, of the great educational,
moral and religious enterprises, as well as
local and public improvements credited to
our county, the philosopher and future his-
torian will here discover in embryo, all the
formative elements of lofty designs, and no-
ble achievements, manifesting themselves in
the lives and character of these early, bold
and persistent pioneers. As in the history
of our race, the law came first and the Gos-
pel afterward — so in reciting the order of
events, we shall follow so nigh a precedent,

15

and state that the first court for organizing
Greene county, was held on the 10th of May,
1803, at the house of Peter Border, some five
and a half miles west of Xenia, near the Day-
ton road. The names honored as the asso-
ciate judges of this first court, Wm. Maxwell,
Benjamin White man and James Barret, are
so familiar to all the older members of this
assembly, that it seems but yesterday when
they were living in our midst. Their nu-
merous posterity have intermarried, and
their near descendants are all around us,
worthily sustaining their relationship to so
noble a parentage. The first presiding judge
was Francis Duulavy, whose keen sense of
justice and detestation of all wrong doing
was proverbial, and as an illustration of his
action in these particulars, it has been re-
peated scores of times in my hearing, as not
altogether apocryphal, though not of binding
belief, that at one of the early sessions, a cul-
prit was brought before him arrested on
suspicion of being a horse thief, but the evi-
dence failed to convict him of the crime
charged, yet in the examination of the case
his general character was shown up to be so
bad and dangerous to the community, and
the proof clearly fastening the still higher
crime of arson upon him, that the judge pro-

16

nounced him guilty and ordered bim pun-
ished, for the latter oflfeDce, as coming within
the pale of a rigorous justice. This be it re-
membered, was before the days when the
technicalities of law were relied upon by its
violators, as a sure guarantee of acquittal,
though the facts are all proven and the mis-
deeds self-confessed. Human nature, then as
at the present day, required that a Prosecut-
ing Attorney should be one of the leading-
officers of the court house and Daniel Simons
was elected for that duty, to control its many
vagaries and more violent manifestations.
For it is among the legends of that early
time that the dignity of office did not always
secure that respect and reverence so neces-
sary for its proper appreciation, as it is re-
lated that the prisoners at the bar would
sometimes challenge the judges upon the
bench to a hand-to-hand combat. As the
names of the first grandjurors are household
words in our midst, and whose descendeuts
are among our most honorable and worthy
citizens, it is a pleasant duty to name them,
beginning with Wm. J. Stewart, foreman,
John Wilson, Wm. Buckles, Abraham Van
Eaton, James Snodgrass, John Judy, Evan
Morgan, Robert Marshal], Alexander C.
Armstrong, Joseph C. Vance, Joseph Wll

17

son, John Buckhannon, Martin Mendenhall
and Harry Martin.

Among the earliest transactions of the
court was the division of the county into
tovvnships, and to make such appointments
as their necessities required and their judg-
ment dictated. The first was that of Joseph
C. Vance for establishing a seat of justice?
and the present citizens of Xenia township,
as well as of the whole county, will find no
fault with his selection for that duty, nor his
conclusion as to the best location.

Next ia order we find the remarkable fact
that both father and son were appointed to
fill the two most important offices at that day?
if not the present, in the county's gift, to-wit :
that of Treasurer James Galloway, Sr., and
County Surveyor James Galloway, jr. Thei^
subsequent history and meritorious lives are
so interwoven with the warp and woof of
our country's growth and development, that
no great leading enterprise of a social, moral
or religious character can be named without
associating their patronymic, while all works
of internal improvement, calculated to build
up and add to the reputation of Greene Co.
was with them a life-labor and pleasant duty.
And as a significant fact it may be stated that
one of the same family, of the third genera-

18

tion, Washington Galloway, still holds the
office of County Surveyor, to the general sat"
isfaction of the public.

The next appointee, to record all these first
judicial proceedings, is the venerable name
of John Paul, suggestive in its combination
of two such historical personages, of a union
of qualities and characteristics, to insure
both fidelity and courage in its proper dis-
charge.

Another indispensible officer, always a ter-
ror to evil-doers and unfortunate debtors,
was that of Sherifi". It was conferred upon
one Nathan Lamme, whose presence to any
one consciously guilty, would impress him
as was David of old, "Thou art the Man I "

If time permitted, it would be both pleas-
ant and profitable to recall the names and
peculiarities of each of the many public offi-
cials down to the present day, as possessing,
individually and in the aggregate, noble
traits of character and integrity of life, wor-
thy of our admiration and adoption. This
conclusion is legitimate, from the knowledge
of those who knew them personally, as well
as inferential, from the fact that of all the
county officers, from its organization in 1803
to the present date, that, on the average, each
one of the eleven have held their respective

19

places for the period of over eight years, a
longer term than Jacob stipalated to serve
for hifi beloved Rachel.

Passing now IroHi the corner-stone super-
structure of the judicial temple, it remains to
introduc ^. the bar. A shorter and more com-
prehenflive word, and variable in its mean-
ing, could not have been extracted from
either tbe ancient or modern languages than
that which by common consent is used to
signify the devotees of Blackstone and Coke
in their professional career as advocates of
law and justice. The travesty of the word
by the followers of Bacchus is only another
illustration that the livery of heaven is often
seized upon to give character and dignity to
otherwise doubtful if not criminal employ-
ments. But it is in the higher and nobler
sense that I take pleasure in recalling to your
memory some of the distinguished members
of the Greene County Bar who have now
passed forever from the horizon of human
observation. I will only name one of your
early prosecuting attorneys— John Alexan -
der,— and many a poor criminal who has not
yet shuffled off his mortal coil will see ris-
ing up before him the stalwart image of this
modern Boanages whose portly presence and
stentorian voice would cause every fiber of a

20

guilty man to quake as one already con-
demned. For full 20 years the terror of his
name, as he loomed up, an avenger of viola-
ted laws upon all the disturbers of the peace
and good neiehborbood, made him a con-
spicuous figure in Greene county's temple o^
justice. Many others are worthy of an ex-
tended notice, but the fresh memory of most
of my audience will fill up their scroll of
fame as I mention Wm. Eilsberry, Joshua
Collet, John M. Miller, J. W. Lowe, J. G.
Gest, Aaron Harlan and Hugh Carey — these
among the dead, while those composing the
living Bar are making their record, under the
litrbt, of all past experience and in the esti-
mate of an impartial judgment, are worthy,
even now, of a place upon the historic record
that shall hand their names down to posteri-
ty. No less than four of the present mem-
bt-rs have been clothed with the ermine of
authority, balanciug the scales of an even-
handed justice between their fellow-men,
while several others might fitly wear, and
doubtless will, as time rolls on, the same ju-
dicial robes. Both state and congressional
honors have already been bestowed upon
different individuals of our legal fraternity,
so recent and conspicuous as to need no onen-
tion. In contrasting the past with the pres-

21

ent, what mighty strides in civil polity, social
life and all the elements of a civilized and
refined community since the session of the
first court in the log-cabin on Beaver Creek,
seventy-three years ago.

We now turn to that portion of our histor-
ical sketch around which cluster the most
bacred relationships and dearpst interests of
our common humanity. You already antic-
ipate me as I announce the moral and relig-
ious element, as accompanying and manifest-
ing itself in the very organization of the
county and destined to wield an influence,
both purifiing and elevating, in all its future
progress and highest developmenis. It is a
noticeable fact that the first ministrations of
the Gospel were initiated by the Rev. Rob't
Armstrong, a most thoroughly educated and
scholarly teacher and divine, a graduate of
the University of EfHoburgh, who came here
while as yet the wigwams and camp-fires of
the Indians constituted one of the featurt^s of
the native forests, and the single-roomed
cabins of the early settifrs off't^red him their
only accommodation and hospitality. But
inspired by the love of his Divine Master, be
braved the privations and dangers of this
then unsubdued frontier, casting his lot for
weal or woe with his noble compeers, assist-

22

ing them in building up their infant colony,
both by word and deed. He was the first
minister licensed to solemnize the right of
matrimony, an institution as sacred and pop-
ular with our forefathers as now ; and well
might he have been proud could he have
foreseen the results of his performing that
ceremony upon so distinguished and widely
known couple, in after years, as the late Maj-
or James Galloway and Martha Townsley.
It is hardly possible to overestimate the val-
uable services of this ScotJish divine who
left his native country as a missionary of the
Seceder denomination for the State of Ken-
tucky ; but his benevolent and christian spir-
it revolting at the institution of slavery, he
naturally followed the tide of emigration to
Ohio. A man of rare culture and deep piety,
he exerted a formative influence upon the
original settlers of the county, to the careful
observer everywhere apparant among their
descendants, even to the present day.

The oft occurring dangers and the neces-
sity of mutual assistance in opening up this
hitherto trackless forest united them all in a
common brotherhood, which ignored all the
artificial distinctions of wealth, birth and
family, and both priest and people co-oper-
ated in clearing and subduing the wilderness ;

23

and at log-rollinge, wood-choppings, and
house-raisings the greatest hilarity and free-
dom was reciprocated and enjoyed by each,
whether it was his own or his neighbor's
homestead that was being enlarged and im-
proved. The generous-hearted and open-
handed benevolence of this worthy divine
became proverbial as he mingled in free and
unrestrained intercourse with these bold
pioneers, and on every fitting opportunity,,
either in the open air or humble cottage, he
was ready to instruct and inculcate the pure
doctrines of his holy calling, as his cherished
and dearest life-work. Numbered among
his hearers, friends and followers were
names that have become historical and hon-
ored, and whose descendants have maintain-
ed the reputation of their ancestors, both at
home and abroad, and many of them are to-
day among our most highly esteemed citi-
zens. A few can only be mentioned ; but in
that early list will be found the Quinns and
Forbes, McCoys and sons, James and John
Stevenson, Thos. and John Townsley, George
and James Galloway, the Kyles, Morrow,
Moody, McFarland, Miller, Laugheads, Col-
line, Bulls, Gordon ; and in Sugarcreek town-
ship, John and Joseph McKnight, Joseph C.
Vance, the YanEatons, Bains, Biggers,

24

Holmes, aud many others equally worthy of
a lasting and cherished remembrance. But
the Rev. Mr. Armstrong was not long the
sole reaper in this remote vineyard of the
Lord, for we find another able and devoted
divine in the person of the Rev. Andrew
i'ulton of the Associate church, who arrived
in this new field of labor in the followins:
year, on the 1st of September 1804. His ac-
tivity, zeal and piety are still themes of lov-
ing memory and instructive comment.
Through his exertions and the co-operative
influences and liberality of John and James
Stevenson the first Associate church in
Greene county was erected upon the land of
the latter. The simplicity of its structure
and absence of all adornment, its rustic seats
and floor of mother earth with no provision
for heating, while the wintry blasts of snow
and wind were warded ofl" by flllins: up the
open space between the logs with mud and
clay, will afford a striking contrast between
the church accommodations and architecture
of that day to the present, and much food for
profitable reflection as to whether the piety
of the later worshippers has correspondingly
increased with their external evidence of
wealth, taste and refinement. Almost simul-
taneously with the advent of the Rev. Mr.

25

Fulton appeared the Kev. James Towler, a
Methodist, from Fetersburgh, Virginia,
whose cnaracter, standing and ability may
readily be inferred, from the fact, that the
first good log house erected in Xenia by its
citizens was for their esteemed pastor, the
pioneer herald of John Wesley's mode of
presenting the truths of the gospel. From
these three exemplary teachers and spiritual
guides, like the mountain sources of some
gigantic river, which in its onward flow
bears upon its bosom the commerce of the
world, one can trace out in the intellectual,
moral and religious growth of society the
grandest results in ever maturing harvests of
immortal fruitage. Thus the foundations ot
the various religious organizations in our
county were laid broad and deep by these
original divines, and it would be both inter-
esting and profitable to recite, in detail, the
rise and progress of each denomination, and
their location in the county, but the allotted
hour forbids. In passing down the stream
of time for the next twenty-five years we
find a constant development of this element
as strengthened by the Baptists, Presbyter-
ians and other christian sects, when a strong
tide of immigration set in from the Caroli-
nas, preceded by that most earnest, learned

and distinguished ot all the bright galaxy of
Greene county's later divines, the Rev. Hugh
McMillan, of the Covenanter church. From
his advent a new impulse was given to the
cause of education, social and moral reform,
and every good and noble work. He came
among us in 1828, and was so well pleased
with the country that his reports back to his
former home, portraying the advantages and
desirableness of this section to all seeking a
beautiful and fertile land, where both civil
and religious liberty might be fully enjoyed,
that within the next five years some two hun-
dred emigrants composed of the best citizens
of the two Carolinas followed him to this
county, and to-day many of them commer-
cially, socially and intellectually hold the
highest positions in our community.

Hitherto the great majority cf settlers in
our midst were from Kentucky, Maryland
and Virginia, but now reinforcements from
many of the Southern States added largely to
our population, and chiefly of a character
that would enrich any section by their ener-
gy, thrift and high moral tone. It was about
this period in the history of our country
when the slavery question began to agitate
society to its profoundest depths and to
rouse up to a vigorous action the quickened

27

conscience of all the true and good through-
out thi* entire nation. Hence men of pria-
ciple, character and thought, protesting
against an institution so blighting and unjust
in every respect, and unwilling to bring up
their children under its demoralizing influ-
ences, early sought a removal to this free
state, already widely known for its sturdy
and enterprising population »nd advanced
sentiments on the subject of human rights.
As surely as operates the law of gravitation
so moral and mental proclivities have their
affiliations and attractions as unerringly in
the associations of individuals, families and
communities. Hence the reason is obvious
and it is no exaggeration to claim for the
early settlers and founders of our social,
civil and religious institutions that no terri-
tory of equal numbers, in any county or
state in the Union, can boast of a citizenship
composed of better material, where charac-
ter, conscience and priuciple were the foun-
dation stones and bases of all alter super-
structures. Not only from our own con-
tinent were we thus replenished with the
choicest of immigrants, but from Europe, the
better classes, discontented and restive under
their oppressions, seeking a freer land and
broader civil and religious liberty, turned

28

their eyes westward for the realization of
their hopes. The ordinance of 1787 having
dedicated the whole North-western territory
to freedom forever, and Ohio being the near-
est and first State organized under its pro-
visions, and this section of it having already
been heralded as one of the most attractive
and fertile, ii was universally looked to as
the very Eldorado of North America for all
seeking a new home, and to these circum-
stances we are indebted for so many worthy
representatives of this element from the clans
of Scotland and the quick-witted and light-
hearted sons of the Emerald Isle. The inter-
mingling of individuals and families from
different States and nationalities, each pos-
sessing some traits of character and ideas
peculiar to themselves and educated under
systems of government diverse from each
other, naturally quickened their intellectual
perceptions, and led to discussions, divisions
and new organizations of church relation-
ship, all evincing a zeal, life and aspirations
for the highest moral attainments. For ac-
cording to the laws of human development
all progress and growth are the result of agi-
tation, and discontent with the present estab-
lished order of both civil and religious insti-
tutions. The fomentation consequent upon

this principle, so conspicuous in our county,
produced a corresponding activity in all the
beuevolent operations of the day, especially
in the Bible and missionary cause, coloniza-
tion societies, various temperance organiza-
tions, and many other charitable enterprises*
all looking to the moral welfare and eleva-
tion of the community, the beneficial effects
of which have been extended throughout all
this region, and are both seen and felt down
to the present hour. And on this occasion it
shall be our agreeable duty to revive and per-
petuate pleasant memories of some of these
former spiritual guides, albeit they are even
now fresh and enshrined in the hearts of
many throughout the county — such men as
Armstrong, Fulton, Steele, Adams, Smart,
Herron, Beveridge, Hugh and Gavin Mc-
Millan, Priugle, Munfort, Poague, Russell,
Reeder, Sales, Trader, Christie, Raper, Dur-
bin, Findley, Simmons, Bontecue, besides
many more whose faithful labors are record-
ed on tablets above, uudimmed by the mists
of time and not subject to the process of de-
cay. And of the many who have gone out
from us, perhaps no richer legacy of good
deeds and wise counsel have been bequeathed
to us than by Drs. Harper and Findley, whose
labors and wide usefulness have been sought

30

and transferred to still larger comnaunities,
evidencing an appreciation of their eminent
abilities, piety and worth. Those still minis-
tering at the same altars in our midst are
Drs. S. Wilson, of spotless record, who. in
1833, with Revs. A. Pogue and T. Steele, D.
Monroe and J. Harbison, formed the first
anti-slavery society in Greene county, when
to do it tested the manhood, courage and
faith of the strongest mind and boldest heart.
And In the list of Doctors of Divinity are
Morehead, Carson and Crum, while the
Revs. Hanna, McMichael, Prugh, Bedell,
Hopkins, Shaflfer, Yockey, Hypes, Sphar,
Gaddis, Richards and others are still enrolled
as faithful laborers in the great harvest-field
of humanity's fruitage, and their work is not
yet finished. We therefore leave their record
for the future historian, only indicating in a
summary way, the obligations of the county
at large for benefits and blessings flowing
from these sources as fountains of pure aud
never-failing supply, preserving and perpet-
uating, in healthy organizations, all the vari-
ous interests of society, social, moral and re-
ligious. Naturally growing out of the teach-
ings of the clergy, Greene county may well
challenge comparison with any area of equal
extent and numbers, to produce efforts and

31

results, in the educational line, that can rival
her own, in variety, magnitude and wide ex-
tended reputation. With a just pride she
can point to her Union School edifices, natur-
ally in her suburban villages, as remarkable
for their size and architectural finish, so ornate
and complete in all their appointments, and
pleasing to the eye of taste, as to be typical
of their grand design, securing to every child
in their several precincts, a free and liberal
education ; but in Xenia alone no less than
five noble structures are devoted to the same
beneficent ends, where both the elementary
and higher branches are imparted with a
like generosity. And notwithstanding such
ample provisions have been made for the
masses, yet institutions, ranking in their
thoroughness and breadth of culture with
the oldest and most renowned in the land,
are to be found in her limits, and worthy of
special notice. First in order of time and
chartered privileges, appears Antioch Col-
lege, opened in October, 1853, with that most
enlightened educator, statesman and philan-
thropist, the late Hon. Horace Mann, for its
President. With so distinguished a head,
and the announcement that both sexes were
to be admitted to equal advantages in all the
departments of the institution, and the un-

32

sectarian character of the institution, all con-
tributed to direct the attention of the bright
and aspiring youths seeking an education, to
early crowd its halls. From the Far East to
the remote West, young men and women, of
earnest intention and loftiest aims, became
its inmates ; and to-day its graduates are fill-
ing posts of honor and usefulness, in the vari-
ous fields of human industry, where literary
ability and moral worth are sought as agen-
cies, to build up and adorn society,a8 well as
active participants in the great political arena
of both our state and national councils. The
broad and liberal features of the institution,
the world-wide renown of its first President,
and the noble work it has already accom-
plished, have made it well and favorably
known, not only in our own land, but on
the continent of Europe, in all the famous
seats of learning and schools of art, from the
Louvre to the Vatican, from Leipsic to Ber-
lin. In after years, if not now, it will be
claimed as a trophy of richest inheritance,
that within the limits of Greene county, was
located Antioch College, that such and such
statesncaa and scholars went forth from her
halls, and that the great commoner of uni-
versal education, and one of the greatest ad-
vocates of human rights and all practical

33

moral reforms, the late Hon. Horace Mann^
lived, and died here in tne midst of his
world-wide usefulness. The second lumin-
ary in the educational firmament of Greene
county, is Wilberforce University, dedicated
in October, 1856, by the Rev. Edward Thomp-
son, late Bishop of the M. E. church, under
the auspices of that denomination. It was
founded by a pure and lofty patriotism, in-
spired by holy, christian impulses, for the
benefit of the sons and daughters of African
blood. Here unrestricted, the highest colle-
giate honors can be conferred upon a race,
long trodden down and held in bondage by
the usurpations and tyranny of the more
powerful Anglo-Saxon. Its establishment
was a testimonial of a sense of justice that
was felt and acknowledged, as due them, for
the many disabilities and wrongs inflicted
upon them in our country, from its earliest
history. The noble efi'ort to furnish such
ample provisions for the colored race, was
alike creditable to the head and heart of all
its early friends and benefactors. Its first
teachers, Rev. M. P. Gaddis, Parker and R.
T. Rust, D. D., will ever be associated with
this purely benevolent effort, to secure uni-
versity privileges and honors for this class of
our American citizenship. But financial dif-

34

ficulties occurring, it passed into the hands
of the African M. E. Church in 1863, and
with Bishop Payne for its President. A
grand success has crowned their endeavors,
and the christian and philanthropist may well
rejoice, that the benign spirit of the gospel
has been developed in so noble and trium-
phant a work. Again, a third collegiate en-
terprise belongs to our county, first establish-
ed under the style of the M. E. Female Col-
lege, with Rev. Mr. Lowry as President, as
one of the pioneer institutions in the "West
for that class, where all the advantages of a
broad culture and the highest scholastic at-
tainments could be enjoyed by those desirous
and ap preciative of its lofty aims. But more
recently, in harmony with the growing and
enlightened spirit of the age, its halls have
been thrown open to both sexes without dis-
tinction, in her graduating diplomas. Here-
after it will be known as Xenia College, and
one of the representatives of advanced ideas,
in its co-equal advantages to both sons and
daughters. Its President, Mr. William Smith,
has been its official head for the last eighteen
years, its origin dating back to a Female
High School, taught by Dr. Towler; but the
growing demands of the city for still higher
advantages of education, resulted in its pres-

35

ent chartered privileges and flourishing con-
dition ; and it now has a high reputation
among all educators and lovers of their
country. In addition to these three purely
literary institutions, there is still another no-
ticeable seat of learning here, (one of the
oldest, if not the first established in the
United States.) This institution was found-
ed in the year 1794 and located first at Ser-
vice Creek, Beaver county. Pa. In 1821 it
was removed to Cannonsburg, Pa., and in
1855 to Xenia, O. In the year 1874 the U, P.
Seminary of the North-West, located at Mon-
mouth, Ills., (formerly the Associate Reform-
ed Seminary of Oxford, O.,) was united with
if. It is known as the Theological Hall of the
United Presbyterian Church, furnished with
as able a corps of professors as can be found
in any seminary of religious instruction,
either East or West. Its celebrity is not
confined to our own county or state, but it
has a reputation and character for thorough-
ness and scholarship and biblical lore, as
wide-spread and honored as the members
and teachers of that branch of the christian
church are well and favorably known. Men
of marked ability, and so distinguished be-
yond the limits of our own state, as its teach-
ers, Doctors Moorehead and Carson, Bruce

and McMichael ; and students of high prom-
ise still give evidence of its popularity and
success. In the aesthetic line, a Conservatory
of Music, under the management of Messrs,
Johnson and Brown, founded in 1870, as a
local and independent institution, already
patronized by students from seventeen states
and the Canadas, is the most striking illus-
tration of the refined taste of the people, and
their appreciation of the most elevating and
sublime of the divine arts. Among the pub-
lic institutions of the county, representing
the delicate consideration and benevolence of
its citizens for the unfortunate and poor, is an
Infirmary, under the superintendence o^ Har-
vey Gram, of dimensions equal to any emersr-
ency, and in external appearance palatial in
its imposing grandeur. Besides this home
provision for the dwellers within her own
borders, Greene countv has had the honor
and glory of having established on her own
soil, by state authority and beneficence, a
Home for the Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans*
presided over respectively by Dr. Gri=wold>
Jenner and Kerr, in the past, and now by
Captain Wm. L. Fhaw. With its six hundred
inmates, it must ever reflect credit and a last-
ing renown upon its originators and advo-
cates, as one of the grandest and most hu-

37

mane of public charities, in all the range of
sympathetic and christian efforts to benefit
and bless the fatherless, so rendered by the
devotion and self-sacrifice of their paternal
guardians, who yielded up their lives on the
fields of battle, in hospitals, and military
prisons, all in the service of their country.
May the citizens of Greene county ever prove
worthy of the location in their midst of an
institution so beneficial and patriotic, an out-
growth and a living witness of the state's
gratitude to her brave and fallen soldiers
during the last vrar. How suggestive is this
of a jest recognition of the honorable record,
engraved upon the military escutcheon of old
Greene by her volunteer soldiery when our
nation's flag was being trailed in the dust and
the very life of the republic assailed. It is
still fresh in your memory that then, the
youth still in his minority, the middle-aged,
and the gray-haired, flocked to the standard
where floated tjje stars and stripes, and on-
ward pressed their way to the gory field, re-
gardless of personal danger, all intent on their
country's safety and honor. Of the thous-
ands who enlisted and became connected
with the Greene county and other regiments
as privates and oflScers, only a few can be
named as suggestive of hundreds of otbers>

38

both living and dead, worthy of all honor
and the lasting remembrance and gratitude of
the entire community. As familiar on the
martial roll, the call may begin with General
Moody, Von Schrader, Lowe, Steveneons*
Findley, Owens, Ballard, McDowell, McMil-
lan, Hutchison, Hering, McClungf, Shaw^
Drs. Brelsford and Steele, Chaplain Marshall,
and a host of equally good and true com-
rades, all too numerous to be mentioned. As
we drop a tear over the memory of the dead,
still fresh and dear to the hearts of all the
survivors, we will only add, high on the
scroll of fame let the glorious war-record of
old Greene in that late bloody conflict be in-
scribed in living letters of flaming fire, per-
petuating her honor and patriotism to the la-
test generation.

To turn, now, to another branch of our
historical sketch, a brief allusion must be
made to some of the earlier distinguished
names well and favorably known in trade
and commerce, who were active agents in
building up and making: possible all the after
great and noble developments of Greene
county. For the merchants, by their enter-
prise and liberality, not only supplied the
necessary wants of a new community but al-
so served as bankers to the extent of their

89

then limited means, and in every way by their
intelligence and public spirit were valuable
members of society. Their honorable repu-
tation is still maintained by their descend-
ents and those at present engaged in mercan-
tile pursuits in our midst, so that in the list
will appear both classes : The Gowdys, Hiv-
lings, Nunnemaker & Allen, Dodds, Pater-
baugh & Allison, Canby & "Walton, Merrick
& McClure, Milieus, McMillan, Bell 60 Ash,
Thorpe, Allison & Towusley, Stark & Lytle,
Cooper & Hutchison, as business men and
firms familiar to every household in the
county. There is still another class of wor-
thy and enterprising citizens to whom the
great prosperity and early rapid growth of
the county is indebted, in the builders and
operators of our flouring and lumber mills.
These first and necessary industries were of
primal importance and the foundation of all
succeeding manufacturing establishments*
The names of these men are ingrained in the
memories of almost every family living in a
radius of forty miles of their location. The
record will embrace Owen Davis, Smith,
Scott, Patterson, Kemp, Bates & Lewis,
Ploughman, Knott & Johnston, Stewart &
Jacoby, Engles ; the Bakers— Thomas, Josh-
ua and Noyl; Fallls, Moody, Palmer, Grin-

40

nel, Jacobys^ Sexton, Banghman & Snyder,
Forsman & Ankeny, Haynes & Earner, Har-
beine, Kniaely, and many others, all identified
with the mo8t important interests of the
county, and in their supplies of food to the
hungry and lumber for tenements to the poor*
became the real benefactors of their race.
The example and spirit of these men stimu-
lated others to an activity and zeal in starting
up a large variety of domestic industries
where waterpower alone was used to propel
machinery; so that by any fair comparison
with any other community, even at the pres-
ent day, she may well challenge competition^
when the newness of the country, scarcity of
money, absence of the raw material, want of
finished machinery, and all other disabilities
are considered as factors in the general esti-
mate. For under all these disadvantages, it
is historically proven that the flouring mill
on Beavercreek, built by Owen Davis, and
afterwards known as Smith^ was the first
and only one erected within seventy miles,
when roads and bridges were unknown in
this frontier district, and the winter season
was used to make available the snows to
smooth the surface and the frosts to congeal
the streams, so that transportation could be
had to and from the Ohio river. Yet at this

41

early period, between sixty and seventy years
ago, carding and tailing machines, cotton, oil
and woolen mills, scythe and gun factories
were in operation and at Oldtown, the arcient
Chillicothe of the Shawnees, Wyandotts, and
other aboriginal tribes of Indians from time
immemorial, ana where Simon Kenton ran
the gauntlet, and other white prisoners were
tortured and many families massacred, even
Connecticut was represented in a genuine
clock factory by Messrs. Reed & "Watson,
while other branches of mechanical industry
were carried on by Messrs. Ballard & North,
West & Cusbman. But prior to this, even,
Mr. Embry, a Friend Quaker from Tennes-
see, had established a nail and sickle factory
and erected the first flouring mill at that
place, antedating in some of his enterprises
anything of the kind in the North-Western
territory. And at this point, likewise, was a
trading-post for the Indians, dating far back
in the obscurity of the past, being on the
great traveled route and war-path from the
Blue Licks, and Maysville, in Ky., through
old Chillicothe, on to Piqua, Detroit, and the
prairies of the far-oflf West. No lovelier sec-
tion and richer soil, with such charming sur-
roundings of rolling uplands and flowing
streams, can be found in this or any other

42

county in the state. To the antiquarian, a
rich field of investigation is now opened up>
in the ancient fortifications and numerous
mounds of a forgotten race which abound in
all this region, crowning the summits of the
Miami hills, and giving a two-fold interest to
the rocky glens and rising grounds near Ce-
darville, while stone hatchets and battle axes,
copper wedges and other articles of raetalic
construction, all indicate an early and long-
ago occupation of this romantic and delight-
ful locality, by an appreciative population,
more or less civilized, of the "Genus Homo,''
whether white, brown or red. And at Clif-
ton, too, full forty years ago, the Messrs.
Bates and Lewis, John and Wm. Anderson,
and others, built a large cotton factory, when
there were neither turnpikes, railroads, or
canal within twenty-five miles, exhibiting a
degree of bold enterprise and trusting con-?
fidence in the future, under the circum-
stances, and at the date thereof, unsurpassed
in this or any other section of the west. At
a later day many other and more extensive
improvements distributed throughout the
county, including machine shops and powder
mills, manufactories of almost every descrip-
tion of agricultural implements, as well as a
great variety of articles of both domestic and

43

foreign traffic — paper mills, products of flax,
and bpffip, rope walks, bagging and linen,
all witness that there is still abroad, in this
region, a lively interest and readiness to em-
bark in any new enterprise that a wise pru-
dence would recommend as a remunerative
investment. Yet it is, as an agricultural dis-
trict, remote from navigable streams and
large water courses, and not so centrally lo-
cated as to become the mart of a wide-extend-
ed region, with neither coal or iron as a basis
of wealth, that Greene county is to be partic-
ularly noted for having developed, to the
fullest extent, all the natural resources that
Providence has placed within her reach. And
still it can be truthfully said, that though des-
titute of carboniferous and ferriferous de-
posits, yet in herMcDaniel quarries and lime
producing strata, at Cedarville, Clifton, and
Yellow Springs, she has found a constant
market, for years past, at Cincinnati, Colum-
bus, and other points, and has a capacity for
increasing the supply, incomputable in value
and inexhaustible in quantity, as it extends
to depths unexplored and over an area of
miles upon miles within available reach.
Messrs. Srouffe, Irvine, Shroades & Son, Iliff
& Orr, are the the principal manufacturers.
With a territorial area of 18 by 24 miles, di-

44

vided into twelve townships, scarcely an acre
of unproductive soil lies within her borders »
except where nature has bestowed upon her
a scenic beauty of rare loveliness, consisting
of deep and narrow glens, isolated rocks,
lofty and impending cliffs, adorned with tow-
ering evergreens and trailing vines, all be-
neath the general level, as if to economize in-
available space and afford channels for water
power to propel the buzzing wheels of her
multiplied industries. Thus possessed with
all the various elements of a rich soil, timber,
stone, lime, gravel, copious springs, and
larger mill streams, with all her antecedent
triumphs and noble achievements — material,
moral, and intellectual. Greene county may
well unite in this national birthday anniver-
sary, decked in her moat gaudy apparel, rep-
resenting in bold relief all the various devices
of mechanical labor and her highest artistic
skill to augment the grand pageantry of this
ever memorable celebration. With a citizen-
ship of some 30,000 to 35,000, chiefly engaged
in tilling the soil, It would be invidious to se-
lect a few as successful and widely known,
when so many are distinguished as stock and
grain producers by all the leading agricultur-
ists of the state. Yet as indicating the high
rank and eners^etic character of the rural pop-

45

ulation, their zeal, liberality and intelligence,
it can be set down to the credit of Greene
county, that she alone sustains within her
narrow limits two flourishing agricultural
societies, a fact without a parallel in any oth-
er county in the state, of no larger dimen-
sions. The parent society was established in
1833, and the Union, at Jamestown, in 1859.
The records of the first not having been care-
fully preserved its earlier history is more or
less obscured ; but Mr. John Lucas Is its pres"
ent eflScient president, and J. B. Carruthers,
secretary ; while ^Squire Cummins presides
over the latter, which for the first eleven
years of its existence elected Mr. R. Brown,
continuously, as its executive head. The com-
petitive rivalry existing: between the two has
doubtless led to a more general interest
throughout the county, in the excellencies
and perpetuation of both, and resulted in an
increased activity and zeal, when otherwise
an indifference and stagnation might have
followed, for friction and contrast quicken
the perception and life in all works and en-
terprises of a growing importance and worth.
And as a further illustration of the active and
progressive spirit of this class, it may be
stated that a granger organization was form-
ed in 1873, by Daniel M. Stewart, now both

46

strong in numbers and influential in charac-
ter, designed for educational and social im-
provement, by arousing and bringing togeth-
er divers minds to consult and advise as to
the qualities of various soils, and the crops
best adapted to each, as well as all other mat-
ters and interests pertaining to good hus-
bandry, including a better acquaintance and
more advantageous relationships between
both producers and consumers. Whatever
may be the ultimate results and benefits flow-
ing from this co-operative efl'ort to advance
their life work, morally and materially, we
doubt not great good will grow out of it.
And the fact that it exists in our midst in
such vigorous life demonstrates an activity
of thought, an energy and thrift of which ev-
ery citizen may well be proud.

Of her central city, Xenia, laid out in 1803
by John Paul, and surveyed by J. C. Yance,
the father of the late Gov. Vance, with her
7,000 inhabitants, 14 churches, 2 banks,
schools and colleges, court-house, city hall,
fire-engine houses, besides all other institu-
tions and needs requisite for her healthy
maintainance and growth, with nine turn-
pikes radiating in all directions, and three
railroads, with their combinations and unions
embracing triple that number, extending to

47

all points of the compass, with still another
independent line soon to be finishe'l, pene-
trating the very heart of the coal region of
Ohio, and yet on the lookout for other ar-
teries of commerce, she may well p«int with
pride and honest exultation to these as her
jewels, as did the old Koman matron, the
mother of the Gracchi, to her sons, and feel
assured that her works will praise her ; for
it has passed into a proverb "by their fruits
ye shall know them." Her deeds already ac-
complished and noble records that have be-
come historical, reveal the high character and
indicate the intelligence of both her former
and present citizenship. Likewise do her
suburban villages declare, by their thrift and
beauty, by their houses of worship and sem-
inaries of learning, their near relation to the
county town, in the organic elements of an
energetic and self-improving character : Os-
born and Fairfield, Bellbrook and Spring
Valley, Jamestown and Cedarville, Clifton
and Yellow Springs, each revolving in their
own particular orbit, but differing from one
another as stars vary in size and brilliancy,
yet all uniting to form one constellation in
the bright galaxy of her tributary and sur-
rounding towns. It may be remarked, that
while so many public thoroughfares and no-

48

ticeable improvements are found in Xenia
alone, yet in the county at large no less than
six distinct lines of railroads and several
dozens of turnpikes, add largely to her gen-
eral schedule of advantages and pleasant
highways, and with them has come a large
immigration of valuable laborers, who in
their train have been followed by a self-de-
voted ministry of the Roman Catholic
church, whose field of work extends all along
these various routes, and afford religious in-
struction to those who otherwise would con-
scientiously refuse moral teaching from any
but their own sacerdotal order. Large con-
gregations and creditable houses of worship
are located in Xenia, Yellow Springs, James-
town and Osborn, and Fathers Howard,
Blake and Burns are names familiar to thou-
sands as their accepted and venerated spir-
itual guides. While honorable mention has
been made of various classes and professions,
justice demands that a high tribute be paid
the memory and character of that religious
sect, always an industrious, intelligent and
moral element in every community, known
as Friends, and represented in our early an-
nals by such members as the Waltons, Em-
breys. Thorns, EUises, Wrights, Sprays,
Comptons, Wilsons, Mendenhalls, Stanfields,

49

and at a later day reinforced by many more
substantial and wealthy families from Vir-
ginia and other Southern states.

But doubtless one of the most potent
agencies in producing these wonder-working
results of our past history, by its activity of
mind and vigor of thought, in disseminating
knowledge, and by advocating the good and
the true, and condemning the superficial and
false, will involuntarily suggest its own
name — the printing press. "With its electrical
communication with the whole universe
of mind and matter, and with its Briarian
arms outstretched and reaching every house-
hold— it has more than brought down fire
from heaven and outstripped the lightning's
flash — it has quickened and enlightened the
immortal intellect, and subserved every val-
uable material, local and public interest, as
well as social, moral and religious, and made
familiar to every intelligent reader. Pelham,
the editor and publisher of the first paper in
Greene county, in 1810, then Kendall, Galla-
gher, Gardner, Hollingsworth, Coke Wright,
Purdy, Ramsey, Lapham, Fairchild & Xich-
ols, Curry and McBratney, Leggett, White-
law Keid, Bascom, Hawes, Kinney & Mil-
burn ; and to-day, Stine & Marshall, Luce,
Patton & Findley, are toiling in the same

50

fields of houorable labor, implanting and
perpetuating their best thoughts and highest
wisdom for the good of all.

There yet remains to be mentioned, the
members of that most influential and useful
class of professions — the physician, whose
familiar acquaintance and associations with
society in its most intimate relations at
large, make them a power in community sec-
ond to none other of equal numbers. It can
be claimed for Greene county, that almost
from her earliest formation, that one came
into her midst from Virginia, Dr. Joshua
Martin, in 1813, who for over forty years was
the acknowledged ^sculapius of his time,
reflecting, by his vigor of thought, delicacy
of feeling, skill in practice, and manly bear-
ing, honor and renown upon all his worthy
compeers, who in character and fidelity to
their calling, are to be reckoned among our
most valuable and eminent citizens. Though
twenty years have elapsed since his death,
his name and memory are as familiar and
fresh as but of yesterday. Now that the
mellow hue of time and distance have cast
their shadow over and around his cotempo-
raries it will not be too much to claim that one
such man would give a lasting reputation to
any community so fortunate as to have se-

51

cured his life work and uoble services. Not
only in the practice of medicine and surgery,
was he distinguished, but in all the social re-
lations of life, in the great moral reforms, of
temperance and anti-slavery, in his advocacy
of all local and public institutions, that were
humane and elevating in their character, was
he equally known and celebrated. Particu-
larly as an enlightened patron of schools and
education generally, and an active partici-
pant in all the grand system of internal im-
provement, both local and general—in which
Greene county was interested— he was ever
a marked man, yielding to no one in his zeal,
activity and controlling influence.
Among his personal friends and associates
in the healing art in Greene county, are a
numerous band whose names will go down
to posterity as his worthy co-laborers, and
for their personal worth and devotion to
medical science, will ever be held in lively
remembrance while fidelity, virtue and good-
ness are the esteemed characteristics of nota-
ble men. In the honorable list will be found
Dr. Wynans, the Dawsous and Spahr of
Jamestown, Bell and Grimes of Bollbrook
Wilson and Thorns of Clifton and Yellow
Springs, Greenes and Mcllheuny of Fairfield,
Hoover of Osborn, Stewart and Winters of

52

Cedarville, Samuel Martin, Stipp, Towler,
Cummins, Perkins, Johnston, Coburn, Har-
bison, Kyle, McClellan, McClung, Edwards,
and others still, a noble phalanx, protecting
community from the insidious and malig-
nant attacks of epidemic and other multifa-
rious diseases. And akin to and as a branch
of medical science, dentistry, can boast of
having among her practitioners in Xenia as
illustrious names in her Taft, Paine, and
Watt as can be found belonging to that spec-
ial class, in any ordinary sized metropolis in
the country. Their reputation is not Gon-
fined to Greene county alone, but in the lit-
erature, magazines and scientific works, pub-
lished both in Europe and America, their ar-
ticles are re-produced and commented upon
for their intrinsic merit and valuable sugges-
tions. Of a later date A. L. Decamp is con-
tending for an equally honorable position in
the same professional career.

While incidental allusion has been made to
the many works of internal improvement in
the county, there is yet one grand feature —
the spirit, the soul of all these enterprises, to
be specially noticed. It has been quaintly
and tersely said, that the greatest thing Eng-
land ever did "was Cromwell," implying in
one word the nobleness and majesty of that

53

great reformer and all the results of his life
work. So it may be said of Greene county,
that for which she will always be known and
celebrated, will be her early enthusiasm,
wise and successful efforts to construct an
iron road from 'the Ohio river at Cincinnati,
to Sandusky City on Lake Erie, forty years
and more ago. This was the Little Miami,
Mad Eiver & Lake Erie lines, the first grand
railroad projection west of the Alleghenies,
the promoter and fore-runner of the indefin-
ite thousands of miles of other tracks since
built between us and the Pacific Ocean. By
her activity, zeal and prudent forecast, while
other surrounding communities more pros-
perous and wealthy, and with greater natural
advantages slumbered and slept, the ever
watchful and sagacious citizens of old Greene
won the prize an(? secured the honor forever
entitled to both, of having had located with-
in her own limits the earliest and grandest
enterprise in all the west. As representa-
tive men in this great work the names of
Martin, Galloway, Hivling, Drake and Mills
will be perpetuated in the archives of the
county as themselves not only the efficient
instruments, but the exponents of the en-
lightened sentiments of her then Commis-
sioners, Fudge, Gowdy and Bates, and after-

54

wards of Steele, Bennett and Daniel Lewis,
besides others, equally intelligent and inter-
ested citizens too numerous to mention. As
in mathematics the larger contains the lesser
number, so in all minor improvements of
highways, turnpikes and bridges, no want
has been unsupplied, but all over the county
living evidences of progress and thrift loom
up as witnesses of the taste and appreciation
of our entire people, in these works of local
convenience and modern civilization. And
though familiar now may be the names of the
officers connected with Greene county, it will
be an honor to have been associated in that
relationship, in all after years, and the seem-
ing liberty will be pardoned, as posterity is
interested in the present, if it is recorded
that Moses Barlow is Judge of the Court of
Common Pleas, John Orr Clerk of said Court,
A. S. Frazer, Auditor, Col. Stevenson, Treas-
urer, Hugh McQuiston,Kecorder, J. H. Kyle^
Sheriff, J. W. Harper, Probate Judge, Har-
vey Steele, James Stevenson and Wm. Watt,
Commissioners.

In this general sketch and summary of
facts, incidents and illustrations pertaining
to the origin and development of Greene
county, how wonderful, how magic-like the
change I From an unbroken wilderness and

55

the chaotic elements of savage life, all within
the memory and experience of persons pres-
ent, we now behold sproad ont before us in
oriental loveliness, more than a garden of
Eden, a whole county with a happy and pros-
perous population of cultured men and wo-
men, dotting the entire surface with their
homes of comfort and elegance, representing
the most advanced ideas of social and do-
mestic life, of civil and religious liberty and
the advocates of all healthful, moral reforms
known to mankind down to this 19th cen-
tury. Modern civilization and Christianity
nowhere reflect a brighter light nor shine up-
on a fairer and purer realm. What more can
I say ? What more can you anticipate ? Re-
sults—grand, sublime, unsurpassed in the an-
nals of our country, crown the heads of our
pioneer fathers and their descendants, for
their noble deeds and early achievements in
this picturesque and beautiful region of roll-
ing uplands and smiling valleys, of gurgling
founts and crystal streams, of murmuring
waterfalls and romantic glens, producing
in combination all the scenic charms of
the far-famed Thessalian Temple of Greece,
and the bolder features of the Highlands
of old Scotland. And when the rolling
cycle of another centennial anniversary shall

56

be celebrated by our posterity, and we, the
joyful participators in this, shall have passed
on and attained to loftier conceptions and
nobler employments in the ever-ascending
scale of our Immortal destiny, may we not
hope that our children's children will still
be occupying this, their inherited patrimony,
building up and sustaining every known val-
uable interest belonging to human welfare,
and inspired by the sainted memory of their
illustrious ancestry be proud to maintain,
and if possible to surpass, the present grand^
glorious record of our own historical and
beloved Greene county. >

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